美国文学史及作品选读习题集(3)

2021年1月22日发(作者：许淑瑛)
3


The Literature of Reason and Revolution

I. Fill in the blanks.
1. At the initial period the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenment was largely
due to_____.
2. Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called____.
3. Franklin
‘
s best writing is found in his masterpiece_____.
4.
Thomas
Paine,
with
his
natural
gift
for
pamphleteering
and
rebellion,
was
appropriately born into an age of____.
5. On January 10, 1776, P
aine‘
s famous pamphlet





appeared.
6.
In
Philadelphia,
______
the
Pennsylvania
magazine,
and
contributed
to
the
Pennsylvania journal.
7. A series of sixteen pamphlets by Paine was entitled_______.
8.
Paine
‘
s
second
most
important
work
__


as
an
impassioned
plea
against
hereditary monarchy.

9. The most outstanding poet in American of the 18
th
century was ____.
10. Philip Freneau
‘
s famous poem ____was written about his imprisoned experience.
11. Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate of president _____

12. ___was considered as the
―
poet of the American Revolution
‖
,
13.
Philip
Freneau
was
noteworthy
first
because
of
nature
of
his
poem.
They
were
truly
American and
very patriotic. In this respect,
he reflected the spirit of
his age.
Therefore, he has been called the
―
__


of American poetry
‖
.
14. In 1791, probably
with Jefferson
‘
s support, __


established
in
Philadelphia
the
national gazette.
15. In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of__


and Revolution.
II. Matching
1. Benjamin Franklin





















a.
The Age of reason

2. Thomas Jefferson






















b.
Common Sense

3. Benjamin Franklin





















c.
The Right of Man

4. Thomas Paine

























d.
The Autobiography

5. Thomas Paine
e.
Poor R
ichard’s
Almanac

6. Patrick Henry

























f.
Women’
s
Rights Pioneer

7. Thomas Paine
























g.
Give me Liberty or Give me Death

8. Abigail Smith Adams



















h.
Letters from an American Farmer


9. Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur





i.
The Declaration of Independence


10. Joel Barlow


























j.
The Hasty Pudding

III. Multiple Choice

1.
In
American
literature,
the
eighteenth
century
was
the
age
of
the
Enlightenment.

__was the dominant spirit.
A. Humanism






B. Rationalism
C. Revolution






D. Evolution
2. In American literature, the Enlighteners were not opposed to _____.

A. the colonial order



B. religious obscurantism
1

C. the puritan tradition


D. the secular literature
3.
The
English
colonies
in
North
America
rose
in
arms
against
their
parent
country
and the continental congress adopted ___in 1776.
A. The Declaration of Independence





B. the Sugar Act
C. The Stamp act




















D. the Mayflower Compact
4. Which statement about Franklin is not true?
A. He instructed his countrymen as a printer.
B. He was a scientist.
C. He was s master of diplomacy
.
D. He was a Puritan.
5. The secular
ideals of the American
Enlightenment were exemplified
in the
life and
career of ___.
A. THOMAS Hood





B .Benjamin Franklin
C. Thomas Jefferson




D. George Washington
6. Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?
A.
The American Crisis










B.
The Federalist

C.
Declaration of Independence




D.
The Waste Land

7. Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ____.
A. American Enlightenment






B. Sugar act

C. Chartist movement












D. Romanticist
8. From 1732
to 1758,
Benjamin Franklin
wrote and published
his
famous _______,
an annual collection of proverbs.
A.
The Autobiography







B.
Poor R
ichard’s
Almanac

C.
Common Sense











D.
The General Magazine

9. Which is not connected with Thomas Paine?
A.
Common Sense












B.
The American crisis


C.
Pennsylvania Magazine






D.
The Autobiography


10. Choose the works which is not written by Paine.
A.
Rights of Man










B.
The Age of Reason

C.
Poor Richards Almanac


D.
Common Sense

11.
The
first
pamphlet
published
in
America
to
urge
immediate
independence
from
Britain is____.
A.
The Rights of Man






B.
Common Sense


C.
The American Crisis





D.
Declaration of Independence


12.
―
These
are
the
times
that
try
men
‘
s
souls
‖
.
These
words
were
once
read
to
Washington
troops
and
much
to
shore
up
the
spirits
of
the
revolutionary
soldiers.
Who is the author of these words?
A. Benjamin Franklin




B. Thomas Jefferson
C. Thomas Paine








D. George Washington
13. Which statement about Philip Freneau is not true?
A. He was a satirist






B. He was a pamphleteer
C. He was a singer






D. He was a bitter polemicist
14. Which poem is not written by Philip Freneau?
A.
The British Prison Ship







B. T
he wild Honey Suckle


2

C.
The Indian burying ground






D.
The day of doom

15. Who was considered as the
―
poet of American revolution
‖
?
A. Michael Wigglesworth




B. Edward Taylor

C. Annne Bradstreet









D. Philip Freneau
16. It was not until January 1776 that a widely heard public voice demanded complete
separation
from
England.
The
voice
was
that
of
___,
whose
pamphlet
Common
Sense
, with its heated language, increased the growing demand for separation.
A. Thomas Paine






B. Thomas Jefferson
C. George Washington


D. Patrick Henry
17.
At
the
reason
and
revolutionary
period,
Americans
were
influenced
by
the
European movement called the______.
A. Chartist Movement






B. Romanticist Movement
C. Enlightenment Movement


D. Modernist Movement
18.
Thomas
Jefferson
‘
s
attitude,
that
is,
a
firm
belief
in
progress,
and
the
pursuit
of
happiness, is typical the period we now call_____.
A. Age of Revolution



B. Age of Reason
C. Age of Romanticism


D. Age of Regionalism
19. _____carries
the voice
not of an
individual but of a whole people. It
is
more than
writing
of
the
revolutionary
period.
It
defined
the
meaning
of
the
American
Revolution.
A.
Common Sense














B.
The American Crisis

C.
Declaration of Independence


D.
Deface of the English People

20.
Benjamin
Franklin
shaped
his
writing
after
the
____by
the
English
essayists
Addison and Steele.
A.
Spectator Papers










B.
Walden

C.
Nature


















D.
The Sacred Wood

IV
. Literary Terms
1. Autobiography
2. Persuasion
3. Aphorism
4. The Hartford Wits

V
. Identification
Passage 1
These
are
the
times
that
try
men
‘
s
souls;
The
summer
soldier
and
the
sunshine
patriot will
in this crisis, shrink
from
the service of their country; but he that stands
it
now deserves the
love and thanks of
man and woman.
Tyranny
,
like
hell,
is
not easily
conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the
triumph. What we obtain too
cheap, we esteem
too
lightly:
?
tis dearness
only
that
gives everything
its
value. Heaven knows
how
to put a paper price
upon
its
goods.


Questions:
1. Which book is passage taken from?
2. Who is the author of this book?
3. Whom is the author praising? Whom is the author criticizing?

3

4. What do you think of the language used in the book?
Passage 2
When
in
the
Course
of
human
events,
it
becomes
necessary
for
one
people
to
dissolve the political bands
which
have connected
them
with another, and
to assume
among
the
powers
of
the
earth,
the
separate
and
equal
station
to
which
the
Law
of
Nature
‘
s God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of
mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.




We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator
with certain
unalienable Rights,
that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness;
That
to
secure
these
rights,
Government
are
instituted
among
Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever any From
of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter
or to abolish it.
Questions:
5. Which work is this passage taken from?
6. What truths are self-evident? What
is the purpose of government, and when should
a government be replaced?

Passage 3

In a branch of willow hid
Sings the evening Caty-did:
From the lofty locust bough
Feeding on a drop of dew
In her suit of green array
‘
d
Hear her singing in the shade
Caty-did, Caty-did, Caty- did!
Questions:
7. Who is the writer of these verses?
8. What is the title of this lyrical poem?
9. What is a
―
Caty- did
‖
?

Passage 4

It
was
about
this
time
I
conceived
the
bold
and
arduous
project
of
arriving
at
moral perfection. I
wished to
live
without committing any
fault at any
time;
I
would
conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As
I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did
not see why
I
might
not
always
do
the
one
and
avoid
the
other.
But
I
soon
found
I
had
undertaken
a
task
of
more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against
one
fault,
I
was
often
surprised
by
anther;
habit
took
the
advantage
of
inattention;
inclination
was sometimes too strong
for reason. I concluded, at
length,
that the
mere
speculative
conviction
that
it
was
our
interest
to
be
completely
virtuous
was
not
sufficient
to
prevent
our
slipping;
and
that
the
contrary
habits
must
be
broken,
and
good ones acquired and established, before
we can have any dependence on a steady
,
uniform
rectitude
of
conduct.
For
this
purpose
I
therefore
contrived
the
following
4

method.
In
the
various enumerations of
the
moral
virtues
I
had
met with
in
my reading, I
found
the catalog
more or
less numerous, as different
writers
included
more or
fewer
ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating
and
drinking,
while
by
others
it
was
extended
to
mean
the
moderating
every
other
pleasure,
appetite,
inclination,
or
passion,
bodily
or
mental,
even
to
our
avarice
and
ambition. I proposed to
myself,,
for
the sake of clearness,
to
use
rather
more
names,
with
fewer
ideas annexed
to each, than a
few
names with
more
ideas;
and I
included
under
thirteen
names
of
virtues
all
that
at
that
time
occurred
to
me
as
necessary
or
desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave
to its meaning.
Questions:
10. Which work is this passage taken from?
11. Who is the author of this book?
12. What is your understanding of the book?
VI. Questions and Answers.
1. What is a proverb? Which writer in his period liked to use proverbs?
2. What are the characteristics of Benjamin Franklin
‘
s literary work?
3. What work was
The Federalist
?
4.
Who
said
―
Give
me
library
,
or
give
me
death
‖
?
What
was
the
impact
of
the
quotation?
5. Could you please give a brief account of American literature of this period?
VII. Analysis of Literary W
orks.
1. Write an analysis of
The Poor Richard’
s Almanac
.
2. Write an analysis of
The American Crisis
.
3. Write an analysis of
Declaration of Independence
.


Keys
I. Fill in the blanks.
1. journalism



















9. Philip Freneau
2.
The General Magazine









10.
The British Prison Ship

3.
Autobiography
















11. Thomas Jefferson
4. revolution



















12. Philip Freneau
5.
Common Sense
















13. Father
6. Thomas Paine
















14. Philip Freneau
7.
The American Crisis












15. Reason

8.
The Rights of Man

II. Matching.
1---e;

2--- I;

3---d;

4---c;

5---a;
6---g;

7---b;

8---f;

9---h;

10---j.
III. Multiple Choice.
1. B






2. D





3. A





4. D





5. B




6. D





7. A





8. B







9. D





10. C




11. B




12. C




13. C




14. D




15. D



16. A




17. C





18. B




19. C




20. A
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